“You know it’s the only way to stop him.”
“It’s too dangerous. I’m not going to let you risk your life.”
“I’m not going to let him destroy what’s left of my life.” She turned away and slid from the counter. She’d only taken two steps when Jake stopped her.
“Don’t walk away from me,” he growled, snagging her uninjured arm.
“Don’t try to run my life or tell me what to do. I know this isn’t going to be easy. I know it’s dangerous. But what’s the alternative?”
When he pulled her to him, he was suddenly aware of heat and curves and the softness of her body against his. Temptation speared him. Looking into her eyes, he found the last six years had melted away. Six years of missing her and wondering where she was. Wondering if she ever thought of him and the magic they had shared.
Jake didn’t intend to kiss her. Getting this close to her when his emotions were running high, his body was running hot, was like tossing a match into a keg of gunpowder. But even knowing what was at stake—her safety, her very life—he could no more resist her now than he could six years ago.
Knowing his fate was sealed, he lowered his mouth to hers.
JAKE’S MOUTH ON HERS was like the arc of a thousand volts of electricity between two conductors. Every nerve ending in her body sizzled with pleasure.
Leigh knew better than to let herself be swept away. But Jake Vanderpol was one weakness she’d never been able to resist.
As his mouth seared hers, her only thought was that she’d been wrong about him. About what he’d done. A door that had been slammed shut and locked down tight sprang open. Bullet wound forgotten, the past set aside, she wrapped her arms around him. His shoulders were like boulders beneath her hands. She could feel his muscles trembling with restraint. The warmth of his skin chasing away the cold that went all the way to her core.
Growling low in his throat, he raised his hands to her face and kissed her hard. Leigh’s mind cried out for her to pull back. To regroup. To take a few minutes to think this through before leaping from a cliff.
But her relationship with Jake had never been rational. It had always been primal and instinctive and out of control. He was the only person in the world who could do that to her, and the intensity of her feelings for him, as they had before, frightened her.
He jammed his fingers through her hair. His tongue entwined with hers. She tasted heat and need, felt the impatient snap of sexual frustration. Pleasure tore down her defenses, rendering her helpless to resist.
Never taking his mouth from hers, he backed her toward the wall, taking, not giving her an inch. A gasp escaped her when her back hit the wall. Her heart swirled and dipped when he took her hands in his and lifted them over her head.
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” he asked.
“I’m okay.”
“Good, because I’m just getting warmed up…”
He kissed her like she’d never been kissed before in her life. Her mouth. Her throat. The tender spot just beneath her ear. Too much intensity. Too many emotions. Too much sensation to absorb.
A protest teetered on her lips. A protest born of the need to protect herself from the hurt he would invariably bring her. That protest came out as a sigh when his body came full length against hers. Leigh whimpered as need took hold of her, as another surge of pleasure overwhelmed her. She was keenly aware of her own body responding to his. Her heart beat out a maniacal rhythm; her breasts swelled; her nipples hardened and ached to be touched; her panties dampened against her skin.
She could feel the hard ridge of his arousal against her cleft. His labored breaths echoing in her ears. The heat of his mouth against hers. Fire burning her body from the inside out.
She cried out when he brushed his fingertips over her breasts. As if of its own accord, her body arched toward him, wanting him with a desire bordering on madness. She wanted his hands on her breasts, his body inside hers.
It had been six years since she’d been touched by a man. But Leigh didn’t want to lose her head the way she had before. She had to stay in control. Six years ago she’d given him the power to hurt her. She couldn’t let that happen again.
“Jake,” she panted. “Don’t.”
He stilled, and she used that moment to slip from his grasp. For an instant the only sound came from their labored breathing.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That was a mistake.”
“It sure as hell didn’t feel like a mistake,” he ground out.
“I can’t deal with you and…what’s happening with Rasmussen at the same time.”
“I’m trying to protect you. He’s the one trying to hurt you. Don’t get the two confused, Leigh.”